Mr. Peanut
Mr. Peanut is the advertising logo and mascot of Planters, an American snack-food company and division of Kraft Heinz based in Chicago, Illinois. He is depicted as an anthropomorphic peanut in its shell dressed in the formal clothing of an old-fashioned gentleman: top hat, monocle, white gloves, spats, and a cane. He is reportedly of British heritage and has the proper name of Bartholomew Richard Fitzgerald-Smythe.1 History Planters Peanut Company was founded in 1906, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, by Amedeo Obici and was incorporated two years later as the Planters Nut and Chocolate Company. In 1916, a young schoolboy, Antonio Gentile, submitted drawings of an anthropomorphic peanut to a design contest. After Gentile's design was chosen, the commercial artist Andrew S. Wallach added the monocle, top hat, and cane to create the iconic image. While Gentile's family originally received five dollars for winning the contest, Obici befriended them and paid Antonio’s, and four of his siblings', way through college. After Obici paid Antonio's way through medical school, he became a doctor in Newport News, where he died of a heart attack in 1939.[3 There is a disputed claim that Frank P. Krize Sr., a Wilkes-Barre artist and head of the Suffolk plant, made the additions of the monocle, top hat and cane. Andrew Wallach's daughter, Virginia, maintains that Krize joined the project after Mr. Peanut was created. Neither Planter's history nor other sources still in circulation positively identify the artist.45 By the mid-1930s, the raffish figure had come to symbolize the entire peanut industry. Mr. Peanut has appeared on almost every Planters package and advertisement. He is now one of the best-known icons in advertising history.6 Mr. Peanut has appeared in many TV commercials as an animated cartoon character. More recent commercials have shown him stop motion animated in a real-world setting. In 2006, Planters conducted an online contest to determine whether to add a bow tie, cufflinks, or a pocketwatch to Mr. Peanut. The public voted for no change.[citation needed] While the character's television commercials were often accompanied by an elegant accented narrator, Mr. Peanut never had dialogue. On November 8, 2010, Planters announced that actor Robert Downey Jr. would become Mr. Peanut's first-ever voice actor.7 In 2011, Mr. Peanut's "stunt double" named Peanut Butter Doug was introduced to tie in with the Planter's Peanut Butter launch. The character is voiced by Kevin Dillon.8 On July 1, 2013, Planters cast comedian and Saturday Night Live alumnus Bill Hader as the voice for a campaign focusing on its Planters Nut-rition product line.9 In 2017, the Virginia General Assembly passed a joint resolution commending Mr. Peanut.10 Baby Nut On January 22, 2020, Planters released a teaser for its Super Bowl LIV commercial featuring Mr. Peanut, Wesley Snipes and Matt Walsh. The trio were shown hanging onto a branch after accidentally driving the Nutmobile off a cliff, with Mr. Peanut electing to let go and fall to his presumed death onto the Nutmobile, which then suddenly explodes. The company's social media outlets declared Mr. Peanut to have died, and that his funeral would be the subject of its Super Bowl ad, although a company spokesperson told Advertising Age that they had not ruled out the scenario being a comic book death;111213 a spokesman for Planters's advertising agency cited the examples of superhero deaths in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for how such a death could connect with viewers and potential customers.14 Planters suspended the campaign shortly after the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash on January 26. It eventually resumed the campaign with the Super Bowl commercial, where during the funeral, Kool-Aid Man's tears cause a new, younger incarnation, dubbed "Baby Nut", to grow from the soil.15 Comparisons were drawn between the character and other juvenile incarnations of characters seen in media, such as "Baby Yoda" of The Mandalorian, and Groot.1617 Relatives * Baby Nut (reborn Mr. Peanut) Category:Characters Category:Characters with relatives